Conventional video conferencing systems include a number of end-points communicating real-time video, audio and/or data (often referred to as duo video) streams over and between various networks such as WAN, LAN and circuit switched networks.
In most high-end video conferencing systems, high quality cameras with pan-, tilt, and zoom capabilities are used to capture a view of the meeting room and the participants in the conference. The cameras typically have a wide field-of-view (FOV), and high mechanical zooming capability. This allows for both good overview of a meeting room, and the possibility of capturing close-up images of participants. The video stream from the camera is compressed and sent to one or more receiving sites in the video conference. All sites in the conference receive live video and audio from the other sites in the conference, thus enabling real time communication with both visual and acoustic information.
Video conferences vary a great deal when it comes to purpose, the number of participants, layout of conference rooms, etc. Each meeting configuration typically requires an individual adjustment of the camera in order to present an optimal view. Adjustments to the camera may be required both before and during the video conference. For example in a video conference room seating up to 16 persons, it is natural that the video camera is preset to capture all of the 16 available seat locations. However, if only 2 or 3 participants are present, the wide field of view camera preset will give the receiving end a very poor visual representation, since most of the screen will display unoccupied seating areas.
Adjustments to the camera are typically done using a standard input device, such as a keypad on a remote control or a mouse, either by manually controlling the camera's pan, tilt and zoom, or by choosing between a set of pre-defined camera positions. Typically a traditional IR remote control, like that shown in FIG. 2, with standard push-buttons is used to adjust the camera. A standard setup is a set of four arrow keys to control the pan and tilt, and a zoom-in and zoom-out button to control the zoom.
Finding the optimal camera adjustment on known systems often requires several iterations of pushing buttons on a remote control or an on-screen menu system, which makes it cumbersome, distractive and not very intuitive.
Even though the camera's pan-tilt mechanism include small step motors (allowing “high resolution” movement), the video conferencing system is often programmed to move the camera in steps to spare the user from excessive key pushing. This works as intended when the camera is in a wide FOV, however it may cause trouble when the camera is zoomed-in since the steps then become quite large.
In addition, if a user wants to control the camera of a remote endpoint, the user needs to navigate through a number of on-screen menus to access far end camera control settings, and then if more than one remote endpoint is connected in the conference, choose the correct remote endpoint from a list of connected endpoints. This process is cumbersome, and for inexperienced user it may be difficult to do successfully.
Hence, as recognized by the present inventors, the presently known methods for controlling the camera in a video conference are cumbersome and confusing, therefore the camera is often left in a sub-optimal setting in a video conference, resulting in a degraded video experience.
Today, users of technical installations are accustomed to and demand systems which are easy to use and provide flexibility in ways of customization of graphical environments and collaboration between devices. Traditional video conferencing systems are not very flexible. Further, traditional video conferencing systems are operated using on-screen menu systems controlled by a keypad on an IR remote control device, allowing for limited flexibility and cumbersome user experience.